auxiliary N4 common casualpolitewritten
〜がる — show signs of / outwardly display a feeling
〜がる
Meaning
- show signs of ~ / act ~ / seem ~ — describes someone else outwardly displaying a feeling you infer from their behavior
Key sentence
子供が暗い所を怖がる。
The child is afraid of dark places.
Formation
| Attaches to | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| i-adjective / na-adjective (stem) | A(い→ ) + がる; な-adj + がる | 怖い → 怖がる / 嫌 → 嫌がる / ほしい → ほしがる |
Examples
彼女は新しいおもちゃをほしがっている。
She wants the new toy (you can see it).
犬が寒がっているから、中に入れよう。
The dog looks cold, so let's bring it inside.
When you can't use it
- Used for other people's feelings, not your own — Japanese treats another person's inner state as something inferred from their behavior. Say 私は怖い for your own fear, not 私は怖がる.
Easily confused with
〜たがる がる attaches to adjectives of feeling (怖がる, ほしがる). たがる is the verb-desire version — V-stem + たがる ('show signs of wanting to do ~'), built from 〜たい. 〜ほしい ほしい states your own desire for a thing ('I want ~'). For someone else's desire you switch to ほしがる, the がる form, because you're reporting an observed wish rather than your own.
Notes
- Because がる makes a verb, it conjugates and takes ている for an ongoing display: 怖がっている ('is (visibly) scared').
See 〜がる in real sentences
Jengo shows 〜がる the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.
Study it in JengoSources Compiled with reference to A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar.